Monday, 24 August 2009
Ben Tweedie - Mountain Boarding CV
Hi and welcome to my first blog for SPIKED.
My name is Ben Tweedie and I have been into Mountain boarding for about 6.5 years now, and competing for 6 of them.
I started out at the age of 13 right at the end of 2002, and rode regularly due to the addictive nature of the sport, always wanting to push the limits to ride more technical terrain and develop my freestyle.
By the summer of 2003 I was ready to begin competing and achieved quite encouraging results for my first years competing (6th, 5th and a 2nd). These results helped to keep up my determination to push my own limits and to see how far I could go in competitions. I continued competing throughout 2004 and 2005, achieving less, by relishing the move into the higher U18’s category.
It wasn’t until 2006 that I began to get good results once again, encouraged by qualifying into the Elite category to the ATBAUK competitions. I managed to take a win at one competition, and a few podium spots at a few of the other rounds. Overall I was quite satisfied just getting a ranking in the Elite class while I was 16.
2007 followed similarly to 2006, but just with slightly increased success and an improved overall ranking. On top of the UK series, I travelled abroad with my team this year to France, Belgium and Cyprus. In Cyprus, it was the World Downhill Championships. I won the U18 class, thus making me the U18 world downhill champion at this point. The competitions in France were less high-profile, but were still well publicised and I managed a good 4th and 5th in each one.
2008 was really the year that I managed to establish myself in the sport. I had a really good season, riding a new board, and just pushed myself so as to ride to my full potential. Overall I convincingly won the Elite BX racing class, and came an disappointing 4th in the Freestyle, so overall I ranked 2nd in the UK.
Possibly my highest profile position was to come 3rd in the open world freestyle championships. This was competing against riders from all over the world, all of which were at the highest of levels. It was an amazing event and was very well publicised, featuring on the TV and many local newspapers and magazines as well as being well advertised and reported online throughout the Mountainboarding community.
2009 is shaping up to be a good year for me too, I have travelled to France for the world championships, where I came 5th against some of the world’s best riders, including the amazing Pete Tatham, designer and manufacturer of the famous noSno boards, who dominated the event.
Unfortunately Round 1 of the ATBA-UK series was cancelled due to bad weather, but at Round 2, I was surprised by the standard of competition and only managed 8th in the Boarder Cross racing. Freestyle went better for me, even so, I was pushed to 4th by some amazing jumps from the others, with all of us going for multiple rotations, switched entry and exit, as well as inversions and rodeos. The standards have improved enormously in these last couple of years and the sport provides a spectacle as good as any I reckon
I am really training hard now and still believe I am in with a good chance of a title this year as I have some pretty exciting new tricks in the pipe line for the World Championships and for the rest of the National Series. Watch this space!
My name is Ben Tweedie and I have been into Mountain boarding for about 6.5 years now, and competing for 6 of them.
I started out at the age of 13 right at the end of 2002, and rode regularly due to the addictive nature of the sport, always wanting to push the limits to ride more technical terrain and develop my freestyle.
By the summer of 2003 I was ready to begin competing and achieved quite encouraging results for my first years competing (6th, 5th and a 2nd). These results helped to keep up my determination to push my own limits and to see how far I could go in competitions. I continued competing throughout 2004 and 2005, achieving less, by relishing the move into the higher U18’s category.
It wasn’t until 2006 that I began to get good results once again, encouraged by qualifying into the Elite category to the ATBAUK competitions. I managed to take a win at one competition, and a few podium spots at a few of the other rounds. Overall I was quite satisfied just getting a ranking in the Elite class while I was 16.
2007 followed similarly to 2006, but just with slightly increased success and an improved overall ranking. On top of the UK series, I travelled abroad with my team this year to France, Belgium and Cyprus. In Cyprus, it was the World Downhill Championships. I won the U18 class, thus making me the U18 world downhill champion at this point. The competitions in France were less high-profile, but were still well publicised and I managed a good 4th and 5th in each one.
2008 was really the year that I managed to establish myself in the sport. I had a really good season, riding a new board, and just pushed myself so as to ride to my full potential. Overall I convincingly won the Elite BX racing class, and came an disappointing 4th in the Freestyle, so overall I ranked 2nd in the UK.
Possibly my highest profile position was to come 3rd in the open world freestyle championships. This was competing against riders from all over the world, all of which were at the highest of levels. It was an amazing event and was very well publicised, featuring on the TV and many local newspapers and magazines as well as being well advertised and reported online throughout the Mountainboarding community.
2009 is shaping up to be a good year for me too, I have travelled to France for the world championships, where I came 5th against some of the world’s best riders, including the amazing Pete Tatham, designer and manufacturer of the famous noSno boards, who dominated the event.
Unfortunately Round 1 of the ATBA-UK series was cancelled due to bad weather, but at Round 2, I was surprised by the standard of competition and only managed 8th in the Boarder Cross racing. Freestyle went better for me, even so, I was pushed to 4th by some amazing jumps from the others, with all of us going for multiple rotations, switched entry and exit, as well as inversions and rodeos. The standards have improved enormously in these last couple of years and the sport provides a spectacle as good as any I reckon
I am really training hard now and still believe I am in with a good chance of a title this year as I have some pretty exciting new tricks in the pipe line for the World Championships and for the rest of the National Series. Watch this space!
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